No matter the kind of brick and mortar business you have, one thing is certain: you need traffic if you want to make online sales.
While your brick-and-mortar business relies on foot traffic and dealing with customers face-to-face at your in-person storefront, you should also engage web traffic and online visitors.
A website can help expand your reach and let potential buyers learn about you. It can inform new customers about your products before they even set foot in your business. And it helps lower your dependence on social media platforms.
In this post, we’ll cover what a brick-and-mortar website should include and how you can successfully go from brick and mortar to e-commerce.
Read on to learn:
What To Include On Your Brick And Mortar Website
Key Considerations For Your Brick And Mortar Website
Balancing Customer Experience In Person And Having An Online Presence
Build A Brick And Mortar Website With Bluehost Website Builder
Final Thoughts: How To Build a Brick and Mortar Website — What’s Different
Online vs. Brick and Mortar
Online stores typically make their merchandise available to buy online and approach a broad customer base. Brick and mortar stores sell from a physical retail store location that means they have a limited customer base.
In the case of online businesses, customers can only see the photo of the product. They can’t physically touch or try the product from online retailers. Customers typically have to wait for the product to be delivered.
Brick and mortar stores, on the other hand, may or may not have a brick and click website that serves as an online catalog of the products. And brick and mortar to e-commerce businesses don’t have to worry about shipping fees since customers come to the store to make a purchase, complete the checkout process and pick up the product.
What To Include on Your Brick and Mortar Website
If you’re preparing your brick and mortar website, you’re probably wondering about the information you should include.
Generally, if you are shifting from brick and mortar to e-commerce, you must include information on your store and what you offer.
That means you need to include:
Product Information
The most important thing your website should include is product information. This includes details on different types of products you carry in your brick and click store.
Instead of going in-depth, you can share brief information about every single product. For example, you can list out main product categories and subcategories to let your website visitors know you have what they’re looking for.
Product Photos
Product photos are another essential detail to give your visitors an idea of what to expect.
Instead of adding photos for each product, you can include pictures representing different product categories or types of products.
Price
Even if you’re only using your online brick-and-mortar store for brand awareness, sharing pricing information is an excellent idea to help your store visitors plan their budget.
You can display price ranges and starting prices — or exact prices if you sell a handful of products.
General Business Information
Visitors will come to your website for information about your business. Your brick and mortar website should include your hours of operation and address to help them. This tells potential customers where and when they can visit your store or small business.
Besides that, you should include the credit cards and payment methods you accept at the brick and click or offline store. Mention your returns policy as well.
This sets the expectations from the start and can help you avoid misunderstandings or awkward situations down the road.
Directions to the Store
Provide directions to your store. Include both written directions and a Google Map that displays your physical location.
While your customers can look up directions themselves, this saves them time and effort, encouraging them to buy from you.
Contact Information
Some visitors may want to call your store to ask about a specific product or request more information.
Include your contact information — email address and phone number — where they can reach you.
Email Opt-In Forms
Your website should also have an email opt-in form. Use it to get a lead and send a discount code or a coupon in return.
You can nurture those leads and notify them whenever you’re running a promotion or retail sales as a part of your marketing strategy, which can lead to a boost in revenue.
Key Considerations for Your Brick and Mortar Website
Now that you know what your brick and mortar website should include, there are a few key considerations you need to keep in mind as you build your website:
- Security — While you won’t be accepting payments online, you still need an SSL certificate to avoid an insecure content warning from search engines. This warning can deter potential customers from visiting your website.
- Domain and web hosting — Your domain and hosting are where your website will live and how potential customers will access your website.
- Website builder — Since you won’t be selling products online, you don’t need a full-blown e-commerce platform for your brick and click website.
You can use a simple website builder that’s user-friendly and has the necessary features mentioned above to make your website.
- Blog — Consider adding a blog to help you boost your SEO rank and attract organic visitors to your website.
Consider the questions your potential customers might have, whether that’s about your brick and click store’s policies and products or the brick and mortar location itself. Try to anticipate those questions and use your website to provide them with answers.
Balancing Customer Experience in Person and Having an Online Presence
Without a website, you’re probably used to getting a lot of calls from potential customers about your products. And while it’s important to answer those calls, time spent on customer calls cuts into the time you have available for in-store customers.
A website can help you balance serving customers in person and having an online shopping presence. It can answer questions you receive, letting you focus on serving your physical store customers.
You can also add live chat to your website. Have one of your employees monitor it for any questions, concerns or feedback. This ensures each visitor that initiates a conversation gets a timely response.
Your website should also have an FAQ page or a knowledge base to help reduce time spent on phone or customer support.
Build a Brick and Mortar Website With Bluehost Website Builder
Building a brick and mortar website might seem daunting.
But here’s the good news.
With a website builder like Bluehost Website Builder, you can build your website without hiring a developer or learning to code.
Bluehost Website Builder has a user-friendly, drag-and-drop interface that simplifies website creation. You can see the changes in real-time as you’re making them.
Pick a Bluehost Website Builder plan that meets your budget and answer a few questions. The builder will ready a website template ideal for your case — that looks professional and functions well on every device.
Once your website has been created, you can customize it to your liking. You can add sections that show your location and operating hours.
You can add sections for frequently asked questions, a contact form and your returns policy.
Thanks to Bluehost Website Builder’s integration with WordPress, you can easily add a blog to your website and start getting traffic.
Besides that, you can customize your website’s look and style with your brand colors, upload product photos and more.
Bluehost Website Builder offers all the necessary features to help you build a gorgeous brick and mortar website.
Final Thoughts: How To Build a Brick and Mortar Website — What’s Different
Building a brick and mortar website for your store is an exciting opportunity to expand your business. It also makes it easy for potential customers in your local business area to find you and learn what you offer.
Start building your brick and mortar website today with the help of Bluehost Website Builder.
